Framing the mother: childhood obesity, maternal responsibility and care

Abstract

Currently in developed nations, childhood obesity is generating widespread concern and prompting social and institutional responses. Obesity is constructed as a broad public health crisis, but individuals are constructed as responsible for their own bodies and body sizes within this crisis. We are particularly interested in two aspects that focus on women as central to this phenomenon; the first is the imputation of maternal responsibility for the weight of children and the second is the role that specific fears about flesh and women's bodies play in how childhood obesity is represented. We analyse media representations of childhood obesity in Australia and draw out the discourses of maternal responsibility and the intertwining of mothers and children's bodies. We frame the childhood obesity crisis within a broader discussion of women, care and responsibility, suggesting that childhood obesity offers another embodied location to reinforce and extend women's roles and responsibilities as mothers, in response to changing patterns of work and care.

Keywords:

• maternal responsibility
• childhood obesity
• care
• employment
• women's work

Acknowledgements

A short section of this article (appearing under the subheading ‘Constructing responsible selves’) first appeared in a similar form in the journal article, Moore, D. and Fraser, S., 2006. Putting at risk what we know: reflecting on the drug-using subject in harm reduction and its political implications. Social science and medicine, 62, 3035–3047.

Notes

1.  More critical examination of the associated WHO publications (United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition 2005, WHO 2008) and other sources reveals that obesity clusters can be related to economic and social disadvantage. This analysis is supported by the co-existence of overweight and underweight within the same locations, known as the nutrition paradox (Caballero 2005), which suggests that both obesity and underweight may be diseases of the poor and disadvantaged, rather than obesity being a reflection of overconsumption or affluence (see Dubois et al. [2006] for a specific discussion of childhood obesity and income in Canada). Health disadvantage is most often linked to poverty and this seems to be the case here too. These concerns have been raised in Australia by scholars critically examining public health discourses surrounding obesity and linked diet and exercise advice (Gard and Wright 2001, O'Dea and Caputi 2001, O'Dea 2005).

2.  The media reports drawn on here come from the period June 2005–June 2008. The focus here is not on an analysis of items and frequency in the reports, but rather on an account of key themes that emerge.

3.  Examining discussions of the family meal in Norway, Bahr Bugge and Almås state ‘many of the claims about the modern Norwegian meal pattern may be seen as criticism of the working woman’ (2006, p. 206) suggesting this imputation occurs outside Australia too.

4.  In examining stories about obese children in different media locations (Australia, New Zealand, the United States), it becomes apparent that the same images are reproduced in all these different contexts.